Welcome to the Slipstream by Natalka Burian

Author:Natalka Burian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Chapter Seventeen

When I woke up, I pulled my phone out and switched it on. A tiny number four lit up, announcing the number of voicemails I’d received overnight. As I played them, I knew without hearing them all that each one was from Alex. I’d call him back when I had something new to tell him. I needed to find Marine. Outside the tent, I found her waiting for me.

“Here, sit down.” She handed me something wrapped in a linen napkin, and a bottle of water. “Make sure you drink this. We are in the desert, you know.” She sat down across from me.

“Did you tell Laurel it’s an emergency?” I asked, and unwrapped the napkin to find a peanut butter sandwich and a banana.

“Van,” a voice spoke behind me. When I turned, I saw that it was Laurel, still swimming in her oversized poncho. “I’m so happy you’ll be joining our group tonight. Your presence will certainly amplify Sofia’s response from the cosmic masters.”

“What?” I said slowly. “I thought Marine told you—we’re leaving now.”

“Oh, you can’t mean that.” A cascade of laughter spilled out after the words. “There’s no question of Sofia leaving.” Laurel swept her arms out like a person miming what it was like to swim. “Tonight we travel with her into the canyon.” Laurel raised a hand to the horizon line and indicated a dark, narrow gap in the mountains. “We’ll travel through the pass, in procession. Our group will camp at a sacred place, and then, we will send our prophet out into the universe.”

“Right, about that—I’m sure Marine didn’t have a chance to tell you, but we have a family emergency back in Las Vegas, and we really do need to go.”

Laurel’s face fell. “That is awful. But, I hope you’ll think of us as your family now, too, as your mother does. Right now we are in perhaps the most highly emergent time in our history.”

“Uh,” I began, but was interrupted by a buzz from my phone. It was a text from Carol.

Before I could even check it, Laurel plucked the phone from my hand. She wrinkled her nose and said, “I’m very sorry, but I can’t allow these in our holy space. I thought Marine would have told you. They interfere with the vibrations.”

“What? You can’t just take my phone!”

Laurel smiled blandly. “Ulrike!” she barked out.

A towering, leathery-skinned blonde woman loped up to us. She bowed her head down to Laurel’s, face-height.

“Please take care of this,” she said, handing over the phone.

Ulrike nodded and scampered off to wherever they burned the phones of innocent girls looking for their mothers. I couldn’t even call the cops now if I wanted to. What was I supposed to do?

“Please, ma’am,” I begged.

“Call me Laurel, or, Your Eminence, if you prefer.”

“Please, just let us leave. Just tell my mom to go. Tell her she isn’t welcome to stay anymore.”

“It’s not a question of letting, Van. The service we are doing here to benefit humanity greatly exceeds any obligation to a single person.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.